Armenia formally joins international criminal court in snub to Russia (www.theguardian.com)
Armenia has formally joined the international criminal court (ICC), officials said, a move which traditional ally Moscow has denounced as unfriendly....
‘We are dying slowly:’ Palestinians are eating grass and drinking polluted water as famine looms across Gaza (edition.cnn.com)
Japan’s former PM, 83-year-old Aso, piles insults on female foreign minister (www.theguardian.com)
Taro Aso, vice-president of ruling LDP, said Yoko Kamikawa ‘not that good looking’, got her name wrong, used ageist jibe and mixed up her place in history...
French move to make abortion a ‘guaranteed freedom’ gains big win in lower house (www.theguardian.com)
Constitutional change could face fight in Senate after national assembly approves measure by 493 votes to 30...
Sweeping strikes impact entire country [of Finland] Wednesday through Friday (yle.fi)
ChatGPT summary:...
CIA director: Not passing Ukraine aid would be a mistake 'of historic proportions' (www.politico.com)
Helping Ukraine is “a relatively modest investment with significant geopolitical returns,” the CIA director wrote....
Ukraine Situation Report: Ground Launched Small Diameter Bomb's Arrival Finally Imminent (www.twz.com)
Ethiopia to ban importation of non-electric cars (apanews.net)
APA-Addis Ababa (Ethiopia) The Ethiopian Ministry of Transport and Logistics on Tuesday announced that it will not allow vehicles to enter into the country unless they are electric ones....
Foreign-born residents in Japan sue the government for alleged racial profiling (www.cnn.com)
Tokyo CNN —...
'No one looks at me': 12-year-old amputee in Gaza on what the war cost him (www.cbc.ca)
cross-posted from: sh.itjust.works/post/13712503...
Figure skater Valieva disqualified in Olympic doping case. Russians set to lose team gold to US (apnews.com)
Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva was disqualified from the 2022 Olympics on Monday, almost two years after her doping case caused turmoil at the Beijing Games....
Zelenskiy Releases Personal Income in Transparency Push (www.bloomberg.com)
Volodymyr Zelenskiy declared his personal income for the first time since the outbreak of war with Russia, as part of his effort to increase transparency in his government....
Disposable vapes to be banned in UK as part of drive to curb youth vaping (www.theguardian.com)
Plans to make vaping less appealing also to include restricting fruity flavours and introducing plain packaging...
Biden says US 'shall respond' after drone strike by Iran-backed group kills 3 US troops in Jordan (apnews.com)
Ukraine says it has uncovered major arms corruption (www.bbc.com)
Ukraine’s security service says it has uncovered corruption in an arms purchase by the military worth about $40m (£31m)....
Russians queue to support Putin opponent in presidential election race (www.euronews.com)
Several Russian opposition figures have vowed to put up a fight against President Vladimir Putin as he seeks yet another term in office....
She was fleeing with her grandson, who was holding a white flag. Then she was shot (www.cnn.com)
Footage showing the moment Hala Khreis was killed as she tried to leave Gaza City went viral earlier this month. It’s one of a growing number of videos that show unarmed civilians holding white flags being shot dead.
US ‘disappointed’ Hungary taking so long to approve Sweden joining Nato (www.theguardian.com)
Washington’s ambassador says Budapest is ‘really alone’ and describes its foreign policy as a ‘fantasy’...
Panama Canal Drought Slows Cargo Traffic (www.nytimes.com)
I’ll note that the Washington Post is also running an opinion piece titled A dry Panama Canal shows how climate change will scramble globalization...
Germany uncovers Russian disinformation campaign on X (www.euractiv.com)
Germany has uncovered a major “pro-Russian disinformation campaign” using thousands of fake accounts on X to try and stir anger at Berlin’s support for Ukraine, a media report said on Friday (26 January)....
An unlikely challenger to Putin brings a rare show of defiance, creating a dilemma for the Kremlin (apnews.com)
Boris Nadezhdin has become a dilemma for the Kremlin as he seeks to run in the March 17 presidential election. The question now is whether Russian authorities will allow him on the ballot....
Top UN court stops short of ordering cease-fire in Gaza and demands Israel contain deaths (apnews.com)
Only five bodies delivered to Belgorod morgue after mysterious Russian plane crash, Ukrainian intelligence suggests (www.cnn.com)
Ukraine says it has intelligence suggesting only five bodies were delivered from the crash site of a Russian military transport plane to a nearby morgue, a Ukraine military intelligence official told CNN, casting doubt on Moscow’s claim that dozens of Ukrainian prisoners of war were killed in the explosion....
Germany to supply Ukraine with 80 tanks in 2024 (news.yahoo.com)
Berlin plans to provide Ukraine with additional IRIS-T air defense systems and more than 80 Leopard-1A5 main battle tanks in 2024, German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius announced on Jan. 24....
Asbestos in drinking water: What does it mean for human health? (www.bbc.com)
Hundreds of thousands of miles of pipes made from asbestos cement deliver drinking water to people around the world, but are reaching the end of their lifespan and starting to degrade. Scientists are now debating whether this could pose a risk to human health....
